On Sunday night, at 10PM, an extraordinary group of actors, directors and writers gathered at the American Airlines Theater on Broadway. The actors shared a prop, a costume and a little bit about themselves to get the writers' creative juices flowing. Everyone, except for the writers, went home. The next morning, the directors and actors came back to learn and rehearse the freshly minted scripts over the course of a single day. Then, last night, they performed the six plays at the 10th annual 24 Hour Plays benefit to support the Urban Arts Partnership.

By the time Sarah Silverman jumped into Craig Grant's arms just minutes into the night, the audience was already hurting with laughter. In "The Bitch Downstairs," Jennifer Aniston popped up on stage as the ghost of Sam Rockwell's beloved dog Millie, and in "The League of Misbegotten Heroes" Anthony Mackie, Julia Stiles and Rachel Dratch tried to save the life of an innocent man with very (very) strange powers. The three of them had such trouble controlling their laughter, but the audience, free to do as it pleased, had to wipe away the tears. In between all of this Gloria Estefan sang in her short play, written by Urban Arts Partnership graduate Elizabeth Cruz Cortes, and Kathy Najimy directed a group of avatars including Gaby Hoffman. The last play, directed by Tony Goldwyn, starred American Ferrera and Leslie Bibb as themselves, gunning for a role on 30 Rock. And before each new play, M.Ward seduced the crowd with musical interludes.

The once in a lifetime experience, underwritten by Montblanc, raised over $400,000 for the Arts Partnership — the most ever — that'll go toward arts education for over 12,000 public school students across New York City. So if you missed out last night, you'll want to mark your calendar for next year.